by NexDev | March 22, 2017 | Uncategorized
An IFOP study requested by « OPEN » (French Parents Observatory for Digital Education) was published on March 20, 2017. The study reports on adolescents’ exposure to pornography and its influence on sexual behavior” and the statistics are nothing short of alarming.
Last March 1st, the French Minister for Families, Laurence Rossignol, launched an Interministerial Plan to stop violence against children. A working meeting with Internet service providers was held on March 21, in an attempt to find a technical solution to protect children from pornography.
Although the law for the protection of minors specifies that pornographic images are banned for anyone under 18, it is not enforced: no means whatsoever block minors from connecting to pornographic internet sites. The majority of them are not even intentionally searching for pornography; rather it is pornography which pops up on their screens, while they are browsing the web. Compared to 2013, the percentage of 15-17 year-olds who consulted a pornographic web site increased sharply from 37% to 51%. Nine times out of ten, they were free web sites with most of the young people are using their smart phones to view the films.
Already in 2011, sexologist, Ysabel Blervaque declared: « Pornography is truly an addiction which will have very harmful effects later on for one’s sexuality. The youth do not make the difference between the virtual and the real world.”
For several years, Professor Israël Nisand has been warning the public authorities of the tragic effects of pornography on youth and accuses Internet service providers of giving free access to these images. On January 11, 2017, when interviewed by France Info television, he lamented: “We’ve abandoned our children’s education to pornography” and warns “some of our youth have become addicted to these images, spending up to 2-3 hours per day in front of them.”
On an international level, the silence on pornography has been recently been broken, when six celebrities publicly denounced its detrimental effects on adults as well as youth.
As emphasized recently by the Federation of Catholic Families in Europe (FAFCE) in a press release: “At a time when the European Parliament is about to adopt its report revising the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive, this is an opportunity to protect minors from being exposed to harmful content, and eventually help prevent them from becoming addicted to pornography.”
![[Press Release]: Numerical Obstruction to Abortion: Ambiguous Decision from the Constitutional Council](https://www.alliancevita.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ConseilConstitutionnel.jpg)
by NexDev | March 17, 2017 | Abortion, Press Releases
Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate’s viewpoint:
“The March 16, 2017 decision from the French Constitutional Council is ambiguous.
The law becomes ineffective for the content on abortion websites, which were initially targeted by the government. Justice is done, especially as the government site doesn’t hesitate in giving women misleading information, trivializing the effects of abortion. The law would only punish those giving false “information”, and not just voicing their “opinion” on the abortion conditions and its’ consequences, given by someone “who is, or who pretends to be competent on the subject”. So be it, but what is the distinction between information and an opinion? And who decides? When France’s minister for women’s rights, Laurence Rossignol, explains that abortion does not interrupt a life, is it considered a fact or only her personal opinion?
And what difference does it make, since the law only targets the information dissuading against abortion, and excludes those who encourage abortion. The Council lets them get away with this discrimination.”
On February 17, 2017, Alliance VITA filed a complaint against the French ministry of Health with the Paris administrative court for the inexact or biased information on abortion published on the government’s official abortion website.
by NexDev | March 17, 2017 | Medically Assisted Procreation
It is unlawful to practice surrogacy in France. But in spite of this, foreigners arrive on a regular basis proposing different techniques for individuals or couples wishing to “buy” a child although this “business” is forbidden here.
Their services include searching and contacting foreign surrogate mothers, buying ovocytes, organizing gamete transfer, managing contracts and administrative procedures, repatriating the baby, payments, etc.
Based in the USA, « Extraordinary Conceptions » is one of the most well-known international companies, with a French-speaking answering service via their website: www.meres-porteuses.com. The agency’s catalog promotes more than 2000 egg donors from 18-32 years old, “from different ethical backgrounds”, and an on-line data base of surrogate mothers.
Already In 2014, charges were filed against this agency, following a meeting organized in Paris, when a young 30-year old female who took part in the meeting provided the evidence needed to support the claim, including a video.
Nevertheless, the agency has announced, apparently in complete impunity, upcoming meetings to be held on 9-10 May, in Paris, Lyon and Marseilles, France. This information has also been promoted via their Twitter account.
Alliance VITA requests that public authorities act decisively against this type of agency from doing illegal business in the country.
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For further information
See Decoder # 39 for Alliance VITA’s viewpoint – “What are the stakes involved in Surrogacy in France”.
by NexDev | March 15, 2017 | Bioethics
A team in China has just published the results of their research using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique in viable human embryos. The experiments were carried out during the zygote stage of embryonic development, meaning the phase with the first cell following fertilization.
These embryos were specifically created from ovocytes donated for research from fertility clinics. Each ovocyte was then fertilized by injecting sperm from one of two men with a hereditary disease.
The CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique was then used on these single-cell embryos before they started dividing, in an attempt to “correct” the embryos’ DNA at the zygote stage, targeting the genes responsible for the disease.
One of the men is a carrier for a genetic mutation on his X chromosome (called G1376T for the gene making an enzyme called glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD enzyme), which plays a critical role for red blood cells.
The absence of this enzyme results in a disorder whereby eating certain food such as fava beans can trigger the destruction of red blood cells thereby the name favism.
The Chinese team demonstrated that in two of the resulting embryos from IVF, the CRISPR-Cas9 tool corrected the G1376T mutation. But in one of the embryos, not all the cells were corrected. Thus CRISPR “turned off” the G6PD gene in some of its cells, but not all of them, so that rather than fixing it, it made what is known as a “mosaic”.
The second sperm donor had a mutation called beta 41-42, which is one of the causes of the blood disease beta-thalassemia. Four of the resulting embryos from the IVF carried this mutation. In one, the CRISPR-Cas9 technique induced another mutation elsewhere in the DNA. In another embryo, the mutation was successfully repaired in only some of the cells, thereby creating another “mosaic” embryo. The CRISPR-Cas9 technique did not function in the other two embryos.
In March 2015, and again one year later, in 2016, a Chinese team had already caused quite an international uproar with theses new ethical issues. At the time, the researchers used abnormal human embryos generally believed to be non-viable. In the case herewith reported, this is the first time in history that a research team has published the results of their experiments on human embryos, performed on viable, fertilized embryos uniquely for research purposes.
The results from Jianquio Liu’s lab however, demonstrate that the technology is far from being considered efficacious and safe. There were reports of “mosaicism” as well as mutations, meaning that CRISPR-Cas9 introduces “errors” somewhere else in the genome.
The study published in Molecular Genetics and Genomics is alarming and should arouse a consensus of righteous indignation internationally, since a new boundary in unethical behavior has now been crossed.
Alliance VITA’s position
“This recent publication raises serious concerns. As with the results published with children born from the 3-parent IVF technique, we are confronted with a ‘fait-accompli’ on an international level. We must keep in mind that China, already considered laxest, is basically a country whose laws and mentality are ultra-eugenic. Nevertheless, the experiments performed on human embryos affect all humanity. Currently, we can’t imagine implanting human embryos in a uterus to give birth to genetically-modified children using these rudimentary genetic engineering techniques, but how can some countries be stopped from going to this extreme?
Recently in the Ukraine and Mexico, there were cases of children born from the 3-parent-IVF technique, proving that even more ethically scandalous experiments like this one, may be looming on the horizon. The international community should form a consensus to request a moratorium and thereby condemn such an infringement on human rights.”
Alliance VITA’s campaign STOP GM Babies was launched as a service for public awareness regarding these risks and to oppose this dangerous tendency of genetically modifying reproductive cells and human embryos.
by NexDev | March 10, 2017 | News
On March 3, 2017, the French Council of State has ruled on a priority preliminary ruling on the issue of constitutionality, presented by an association, regarding the End-of-Life law enacted on February 2, 2016, and more specifically on the collegiate procedure for medical decision-making in the event of terminal sedation.
This unexpected initiative was filed by the National Union of Associations for Families of those with brain damage and cranial trauma (“UNAFTC“). They filed an annulment appeal at the end of 2016 with the Council of State for the August 3, 2016 decree pursuant to the Claeys-Leonetti law. This decree modified the Medical Code of Ethics for collegiate procedure for medical decision-making in cases of “deep and continuous sedation until death” especially when the patient concerned can no longer speak.
The priority preliminary ruling on the issue of constitutionality
To support their request, the association asked that “the preliminary issue of constitutionality be submitted to the Council of State as to whether the rights and liberty guaranteed by the Constitution” were respected concerning three articles in the Public Health Code modified by the Claeys-Leonetti law of February 2, 2016.
This special procedure is known as a “Priority Preliminary Ruling on the Issue of Constitutionality”: the Constitutional Council is asked, in a case where a law needs interpretation, to examine the law to verify its compliance with the Constitution. If the law does not comply, the Constitutional Council has the authority to rescind the law. This is the same scenario when 60 deputies or senators, request for all or part of a law be cancelled, after Parliament’s vote, and before its publication in the Official Journal.
The “UNAFTC” association’s main argument is: the collegiate procedure for medical decision-making is defined by decree (written by the government) and not by law (voted by the Parliament). However, this decree does not guarantee “the collegial nature of the medical decision to limit or stop treatment (…) nor the eventuality of filing a suspensive appeal against such a decision.” And yet the collegiate procedure can infringe on our fundamental rights, including the right to life, since it can result in the death of a patient. Such a prerogative belongs to the Parliament (according to article 34 of the Constitution) and not to a minister. Therefore, the articles in the February 2, 2016 law mentioning the collegiate procedure do not comply with the French Constitution.
The Council of State, whose role is to verify whether the preliminary ruling on the issue of constitutionality is legitimate or not, ruled that the association was well-grounded in its request and thereupon transferred their request to the Constitutional Council. All they have to do now is to wait for the Constitutional judge’s decision, and until it is known the procedure to cancel the Council of State’s decree dated August 3, 2016 is on hold.
The “UNAFTC” Association is willing to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
The “UNAFTC” Association has been involved since the beginning of the Vincent Lambert case, when the Reims Hospital decided to implement an “end-of-life protocol”. Before the Council of State in June 2014, the association adamantly opposed that one single doctor could make the decision after the collegiate procedure for decision-making had decided to stop treatment for a patient who cannot speak for himself.
The association persistently upheld this position in the legal debates on the Claeys-Leonetti law.
In January 2015, they also wrote to the French President, and started a petition which stated: « The law should protect the most vulnerable, those whose wishes are not known. The decision must not be in the hands of one single doctor; the patient’s wishes should be sought by those who know and love him (…). If the decision-making process is not regulated by legal boundaries, there is an enormous risk of ending lives, even those motivated by compassion or under pressure for a certain kind of economic rationality, for individuals whose lives appear meaningless. Today we speak of those in a vegetative state or minimal consciousness, but in the future will it concern Alzheimer patients, or those with multiple disabilities?”
